


In the Dark

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-06
Updated: 2004-12-06
Packaged: 2018-10-06 12:59:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10335266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: SUMMARY: Two members of SG-1 get left behind





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Stargate SG-1 FanFiction - In the Dark

##  In the Dark

##### Written by Badgergater   
Comments? Write to us at Badgergater@cs.com

  * SUMMARY : Two members of SG-1 get left behind
  * PG [D] [Hc]



* * *

He swam upward out of the black void inside his skull, upward, toward the light.

Except there was no light.

There should have been light.

For a moment, terror seized him, his heart hammering at breakneck speed. Was he trapped somewhere, alone in the dark?

Was he blind?

Buried alive?

Dead?

He blinked, and knew he blinked. He could feel his dry eyelids scraping grittily across his eyes. Lifting a hand, bringing it up to where he thought his face should be, he felt the fingers touch his chin.

He could feel, that was good.

Still couldn't see though.

He beat back another surge of blackness-induced terror, knowing he shouldn't be afraid of the dark, but was.

Groping outward with his hand, searching for… he didn't know what, but something, some reassurance that the world around him still existed.

He jerked the hand back when it touched something soft, warm, alive; something that was not part of him.

"O'Neill," a soothing, faceless voice whispered at him.

O'Neill, yes, that was who he was, O'Neill.

Comforting, to know that.

It helped to know that someone knew him, even if he did not recognize that someone. He barely recognized himself through the wall of darkness and the crashing waves that radiated outward from deep within his skull.

He tried to move his lips then, to form words, because he knew words were valuable, knew that he could use them to communicate, to ask the questions to get the answers he needed.

"Where?" his voice didn't sound smooth and rich like the one that had told him his name. It sounded cracked, rough, coarse, harsh, battered, maybe even broken, which was how he felt.

"We are in the forest. Near the Stargate."

The voice was reassuring in its steady, composed tones.

He latched on to that, using it to calm himself.

"For'st?" It was still hard work, to force his tongue to make the sounds.

"We could not go home, O'Neill. The gate was guarded."

Home. That sounded nice. Good. Even if he couldn't yet remember where or what home was, he knew it was good and safe, just by the way that smooth voice said the word, with warmth and assurance.

"Guard'd?"

"By Arklan's forces."

"Ark-land?"

"Arklan. The Goa'uld who controls this planet."

"Go'a, go…" damn, he couldn't say that word, had a sudden inkling that he always had trouble with that word. "Go…ld?"

"The Goa'uld."

"Who?"

"O'Neill, I believe your brain may have sustained considerable damage. The Goa'uld are our enemies. Together, we have battled them for years.

"Okay, that was one thing answered. But..."Who…you?"

"You do not know me, O'Neill?"

He started to shake his head, realized immediately that such a movement was a huge mistake because his brain was sloshing around inside his skull in a way he knew wasn't normal or natural. "No," he said, softly. "Don't know much. Yet," he added optimistically.

"I am Teal'c, formerly of Chulak, now of Earth, and of SG-1. Your teammate, and friend."

"T…" that sounded right. T. Teal'c. He swallowed, asked more, needing to know more. "What happ'ned?"

"You were injured."

Oh, that was helpful. He was pretty sure this pounding inside his head wasn't normal, though he had trouble remembering what normal should be. But flat on his ass, on the cold, hard ground, in a forest, in the dark, with a thundering wave rolling around inside his head, didn't seem like it should be normal. He wished the voice would explain more. Better. "How?"

"Arklan used his hand device on you, rendering you unconscious."

Unconscious he understood. The rest was unclear. "Hand d'vice?"

"A powerful beam which causes great pain…"

Oh, the voice was right about that part, for sure.

"…and which you, O'Neill, have previously stated 'scrambles one's brain like eggs for breakfast'."

Oh, yeah, that made sense. Vulnerable, scramble-able brain tissue absorbing megatons of energy. He was inordinately proud of himself for thinking of those words, big, multi-syllable science words. Carter would be proud of him, Daniel, too.

Except…

If only he knew who Carter and Daniel were.

He pushed at the dark curtain inside his head, forced it back an inch and another inch and another, but it was a struggle for which he was ill prepared. Pushing, thinking, trying, made his head hurt.

Correction.

His head hurt.

Doing anything made it hurt more.

Much more.

He groaned, raising a hand to his temple, trying to hold something in, or maybe, keep something out.

"You must be quiet, O'Neill," the soothing voice sounded urgent.

"Why?" Ask when you don't know. That was important.

"There is a Jaffa patrol nearby," the voice was almost whispering in his ear now.

"Jaffa?" He couldn't even figure out who the Go'a...Gold were, or Carter or Daniel, now he had to figure out who this Jaffa-guy was?

Oiy.

Too much.

Too soon.

Too complicated.

Too, just too, way too, whatever.

He closed his eyes, or maybe, they had been closed all along, he couldn't remember, and didn't care.

Let his brain rest.

Tried to think of something besides the roiling waves plowing through his gray matter, and that they were making him nauseous.

Failed to hold the moan inside.

A hand covered his mouth, before remembering T's admonition to be silent.

Admonition.

Silent.

More big words.

Behind the confining hand, he smiled. 

Long moments passed, time he couldn't define, as he waited, silent, and then the hand relaxed and was gone.

"They have passed us by, O'Neill," Teal'c whispered.

"Peachy." He didn't know where that word came from, just that it felt right, rolling off his tongue into the night air. 

Chill night air, he suddenly realized, shuddering.

"O'Neill?" the smooth voice sounded less smooth, more worried now.

What had he done, to upset Teal'c?

"C-cold."

"The air has become more chill, and I fear it will become even more so, before dawn."

"Fire?" he asked, hopefully, remembering fire was warm and cheerful and comforting.

"We cannot risk it. Undoubtedly, those who hunt us would find us."

"That would be bad." Wow, his brain had reached past the undulating curtain of black, all the way to a conclusion.

"Yes, O'Neill, discovery would not be a desirable outcome. We must stay hidden."

He heard vague rustling noises, then a sound that was vaguely familiar. "You must drink, O'Neill."

There was a hand behind his head, lifting it upward and he cooperated because he was pretty sure something good would come of it. Something touched his lips, a cool and smooth thing, and then he felt moisture on his lips and tongue and swallowed greedily. The liquid soothed his parched mouth and glided silkily down his arid throat.

Good.

Very good.

But moving hadn't been a good idea, because it had awakened the black cloud inside his skull. It was pulsating, expanding, eating him alive from the inside.

He fought it, but in the end, it overcame him, and carried him away into oblivion.

"O'Neill, you must awaken. We must move."

He didn't want to, not the former, and certainly not the latter.

"No," he answered, proud he'd said the word so succinctly.

"We must go, O'Neill."

The smooth voice was still steady but no longer so calm, a sense of urgency pervaded it.

Which meant T-man was serious.

Which meant the situation was serious, very serious.

Which meant, he had to move.

Oiy.

Jack opened his eyes, surprised to discover the blackness was no longer quite so complete, both inside his head, and out.

"Dawn is approaching. We must find a new hiding place."

Ah, that explained it; there was a brightening of the sky indicating a new day was soon to arrive.

New day.

Nice thought.

He raised his head, and immediately wished he hadn't, because now that he could see, though only dimly, everything was spinning and swirling. He threw out an arm to brace himself, to find ground from sky, and a hand grabbed onto it..

Teal'c's hand.

The hand of a friend.

A comrade.

A brother.

"Good man, Teal'c," he hadn't meant to say the words out loud, but he had, and was rewarded by a soft reply.

"As are you, O'Neill."

Jack snorted, which also wasn't a smart thing to do, because it caused him to take a deep breath, leading to the sudden realization that his head wasn't the only thing that hurt. His ribs protested the movement, and when he tried to sit up, in instinctual reaction to the need to breathe, he discovered that his leg hurt, too.

A lot.

Squinting to focus, he looked down at his leg and saw the scorched hole in his BDUs, halfway between his knee and his waist.

He waved a hand toward the damaged part of his leg. "What hap'ned?"

"You were injured when we were captured by the Go'auld.

Okay, now this was getting confusing. Captured? He didn't remember any of it, not the capture, not the hand thing, not where he was or why or how he'd gotten that throbbing, burning hole in his flesh.

"You do not remember?" the gentle voice asked.

"No."

"We were attacked soon after arriving on the planet, by Arklan's Jaffa. We were providing cover for a retreat through the Stargate when you were wounded and we were captured. Major Carter and Dr. Jackson had already gated safely back to Earth."

None of this was sounding in the slightest bit familiar, although he now knew whom Carter and Daniel were. Sort of. "And?" he asked, needing to know more.

"After our capture, we were taken to the ruler of the world, Arklan. When you resisted the order to kneel before him, you incurred his wrath. You were beaten by the Jaffa, and then the Goa'uld used his hand device on you, as further punishment for your refusal to cooperate."

No wonder he felt like crap... head, ribs, thigh... a hat trick of misery... triple dose, triple play, triple threat, triple trouble. "We escaped?" he knew they must have, because they were in the forest, hiding, rather than huddling in a cell in the Gold-guy's dungeon.

"By great good fortune. Just as Arklan was about to kill you with the hand device, the gate activated. His troops scattered, and one of them dragged you into the forest, while another took me. I was able to disarm my captor, rescue you, and flee."

It still didn't sound familiar. Or possible, considering how he felt. "I don't think I was up to fleeing."

"You were not. I carried you."

"You're strong."

"Very." T-man nodded.

"Who opened the gate?" he asked, once again inwardly thrilled that he had thought of another important question.

"I believe it was the SGC checking why we had not followed Major Carter and Doctor Jackson."

"R'scue party?"

"Not yet. They will not come while the gate is guarded."

"Oh." His head was throbbing as he tried to keep so many important facts straight.

"Now, O'Neill, it is time," he could see Teal'c's face in the growing light, and recognized the worry hidden within the normally stolid expression.

"Give me a hand up," he said, offering one to the big Jaffa, letting Teal'c grasp his hand and supply the power to pull him up off the ground.

He tried to use one leg, the one without the crispy spot, to help maneuver himself upward, but it pretty much just buckled up, and would have deposited him back on the ground without his friend's strong grip.

Closing his eyes to stop the nauseating swooping motions of ground and clouds and trees and sky, he kept his breathing shallow, fighting for control.

"Can you walk, O'Neill?"

"Oh, yeahsureyoubetcha." It was a lie, and he knew it was, even as he said it, but it was part of the O'Neill bravado to say it, even if he couldn't do it.

Leaning heavily on the strong arm that was propping him up, he shuffled forward, slow tiny steps, forcing his body to obey, even when his knees wanted to buckle and his head threatened to explode into a billion tiny pieces.

Closing his eyes in concentration, trusting the man he called brother, he somehow moved.

Keep the eyes closed.

Keep the breathing shallow.

Keep the legs moving.

Keep upright.

Keep awake.

Keep the contents of the stomach in the stomach.

Keep the moan buried deep in the throat.

Breathe.

Move.

Don't think.

Lean on Teal'c.

Trust Teal'c.

Follow Teal'c.

\-----------------

He was shuffling forward, awkwardly, finding it hard to place his feet because the ground kept sliding away from him. Finally, he closed his eyes, and found it was actually easier that way.

And that constant nauseous feeling abated, too.

Somewhat.

"Where we goin'?" It was hard to breathe and walk and talk at the same time, but he needed to know because... well, just because he did.

"We are moving to a more secure location. One where the Jaffa are unlikely to find us."

"Why don't we jus' go home?" He smiled, proud of having thought of such a logical, simple, perfect answer. 

"We cannot. The gate is still guarded."

"Bad guys?"

"Very bad." The strong shoulder he was leaning on stopped moving.

He overbalanced, slipping forward, knees buckling, eyes flying open instinctively as the ground approached.

But he didn't hit.

Muscular arms gripped him, preventing his fall.

If only they could prevent the pain too. It had been a dull steady ache that the near-fall had suddenly brought raging to life.

He bit his lip to stop himself from crying out, but not quite fast enough. A low moan escaped his lips as he was lowered to the ground.

"I am sorry, O'Neill."

"Sss 'kay," he gasped, lowering his head, closing his eyes, ordering the pain to stop.

It disobeyed.

/-----\

He had traveled a thousand or more miles, leaning more and more heavily on Teal'c's strong shoulders, when the big man finally paused to rest.

Stopped to let him rest, Jack corrected.

The good news was that the hammering inside his head had diminished, somewhat.

The bad news was that the pain in his leg had grown even more. No longer just confined to the area immediately around the burn, the pulsing waves radiated outward, along nerves and muscles, right down deep into the bones.

He hurt, make no mistake about it.

But he couldn't stop, wouldn't, because Teal'c said they needed to move, and he knew that Teal'c was right.

Teal'c was a warrior.

Teal'c was his brother.

Teal'c would protect him until he could protect himself, because that was Teal'c's way.

/-----\

Time and thought had ceased to be, only misery and stubborn determination remained. 

One step.

Another step.

Move forward.

Move onward.

Don't stop.

One step.

He could make one step.

And then another.

One step.

"Here, O'Neill."

Teal'c had stopped, and Jack opened his eyes to see trees, broken over, downed trees with clumps of wet dirt clinging to huge roots that poked up into the air, remnants of some massive storm. "There is a well-hidden space here, beneath the tree roots, where you may rest."

Rest, yes, resting he could manage. Muttering curses to distract himself from just how much he hurt from the awkward movements, he let Teal'c help him to the ground, covering him with both of their jackets. Lying down, he let out a sigh of relief as he closed his eyes, bone tired and aching everywhere.

"I will return soon."

"Where ya' goin'?"

"I must be sure our trail is well hidden. And I can hear water flowing nearby, so I will refill the canteen. Do not leave this place, O'Neill."

Something important suddenly dawned on him. "Why're you givin' the orders? Don't I usu'ly give the orders?"

"Indeed, O'Neill, you give the orders. But not today. You are wounded, and must allow me to take charge."

Jack waved a hand in the air. "Okie-dokey, then, take charge."

Teal'c turned to go.

He needed an answer first. Teal'c knew all about those goaled guys, he would be able to answer Jack's question. "T..."

'"Yes, O'Neill?"

"Will my head stop hurting?"

"I believe so. If the hand device does not kill, it rarely does permanent damage." The ebony face softened. "I understand its effects are, however, quite painful."

"Quite. Yup. Quite." Sinking back with a sigh, Jack O'Neill let his body relax and drifted off to a restless sleep.

\---------------------

An unfamiliar sound woke him. He lay still, listening, trying to focus despite the pounding in his head and the urge to cough. The odd noise continued, and Jack opened his eyes a tiny slit. By the dim light filtering through the trees, he could see movement among the branches overhead. Struggling to focus on the rapidly moving creatures, he eventually realized that they were monkey-like things, bouncing through the trees. Picking some sort of fruit from the branches, they edged ever closer. Occasionally, one would stop and seem to stare curiously at him, but they didn't come any nearer, didn't seem to be a threat, didn't seem to see him as a threat, either. In fact, he knew they were a good thing, an early warning system of sorts in case those hunting for him came close. He wanted to watch, they were entertaining, but the kaleidoscope of movement seemed to ratchet up the pain in his head even more than before.

Agony trumped cute, so he closed his eyes, and listened. The noise continued, and eventually lulled him back to sleep, where the pain was so very much more bearable.

/-----\

He had no idea how much time had passed when the animals' cries suddenly changed from their constant soothing chittering, to high pitched squeals, and then their noises abruptly stopped all together.

Again opening his eyes only a slit, Jack could tell the creatures were gone. He lay still, and soon his expectations were met, and other sounds reached his ears, loud, rapid, rhythmic, familiar, menacing. He searched his brain for the word... Java... Java boots. No, close, but... Jaffa boots, that's what they were, Jaffa boots marching through the forest. Disrupting the animals. Disrupting his rest.

Jack held his breath, huddling close to the ground, wishing the loud thump-thump of those marching feet didn't reverberate quite so much through his still quivering gray matter. 

Thankfully, after a few minutes, the sound faded away and he knew the Jaffa were gone. Jack waited a long time, barely breathing, concentrating, but no more aliens came.

Except one.

Teal'c returned as the sun began to dip toward the horizon. "I am sorry I could not return sooner, O'Neill. There are Jaffa patrols in the woods."

"Sss okay, long as you made it back."

"We shall have to wait here, perhaps for several days."

"Waiting is good," or so it seemed.

"I have brought water."

"Good job, T." Jack's hands were so shaky that he needed the Chulakian's help to lift the re-filled canteen to his lips. He drank greedily.

Teal'c set the canteen down, and looked at his commander with worried eyes. Reaching a hand to touch the brow fringed with gray hair, the Jaffa frowned. "Your temperature is elevated, O'Neill."

"It's hot here."

"True. However, I suspect your leg wound is infected."

Oiy. Damaged head, damaged leg, damaged ribs, was there an undamaged part he didn't need to worry about? "Don't su'pose there's a local doc who makes forest calls?"

"I do not."

T didn't get the clever humor of it, as he never seemed to do, Jack thought sadly. "Okay, then," Jack closed his eyes, and settled back to once again rest on the leaf covered ground. "We'll wait."

"Waiting may be unwise."

Wait, hadn't T just said they needed to wait? And now they shouldn't? He was confused, and this time he didn't think that the cause of his confusion was his pounding skull. "What?"

"You will become more gravely ill as time passes."

"Better ill than imprisoned, I always say."

Teal'c nodded. "I do believe your brain is functioning more fully, O'Neill."

"That's me, fully functional."

/-----\

Through another night, he slept and dozed and relied on Teal'c.

He wasn't someone who could very often trust anyone, but T-man was the most trustworthy... man, alien, person... he knew. 

He felt worse in the morning, his whole body aching, too hot and too cold by turns.

Feverish.

Ache-ish.

Lousy-ish.

There were antibiotics in his pack, but the gould only knew where that had ended up, along with his weapons, food and other gear. Teal'c's pack was gone, too.

Just think of it as an advanced course on survival skills, he told himself.

On another planet.

Cut off from home.

No food, no weapons.

And wounded to boot.

Oiy.

Hey, Jack, can you spell 'bad day'?

Not the way his head still hurt, he couldn't.

/-----\

"O'Neill," a hand touched his shoulder and he opened his eyes. Teal'c knelt beside him, holding out a canteen. "You must drink."

The Jaffa slid a hand behind his shoulder, helping him sit up, then held the container to his lips. Jack gratefully swallowed the liquid, then sank back down, letting his eyes fall closed once more.

"We must attempt to reach the gate."

"Before I get too weak to move?"

"I did not say that."

"But it's what you were thinking." Jack sighed. He knew Teal'c wouldn't leave him, knew the man wouldn't go home without him even if he should, and he couldn't be responsible for that. Opening his eyes, O'Neill reached out a hand. "Help me up then."

Teal'c's strong grip latched onto his forearm and pulled. Letting his friend do most of the work, the Colonel pushed with his good leg, and managed to get vertical. Things weren't spinning around like they had the day before, they were just pretty much fuzzy and sort of grayish around the edges, he thought, swaying but staying upright.

"Lead on, McDuff." Leaning heavily on the Jaffa's strong shoulders, Jack shuffled forward.

He tried not to think, reminding himself that every step was a small victory, that each one was one less step needed to reach home; counting what was accomplished, rather than what still needed to be done. Step by step, letting Teal'c carry most of his weight and provide all of his balance, he stumbled on.

He hurt all over. His left leg was a constant source of misery, burning hot, pain shooting upward each time he swung it forward, each time his foot touched the ground no matter how lightly or how briefly or carefully. His ribs protested each breath, no matter how shallow. Drenched with sweat, he wasn't sure if it was from the fever or the exertion, knees wobbly with exhaustion, his head once more consumed by a blinding headache that could have been the infection, or the last vestiges of the damage done by the ribbon device.

It didn't matter, none of it mattered, he knew that, all that mattered was moving. Surviving. Getting home.

"Sit here, O'Neill, and rest. Just a few moments."

Jack raised his head enough to see that Teal'c had brought them to the edge of the trail. A large rock offered him a seat and gratefully, he sank down to sit on it. Bracing himself with his hands to keep from keeling over completely, he rested, head down. Wordlessly, he drank when Teal'c once more offered him the canteen and managed only a smile of thanks.

"We are near the gate now, O'Neill."

"Tha's good." All he wanted to do was to lie down and sleep and let the pain go away.

"This will be the most difficult part of our journey. The gate may still be guarded."

"Tha's not good."

"I will attempt to procure weapons for us."

Gee, the SGC had an armory here? Wow. Good thinking. Wait, Teal'c would need his keycard. No, think Jack, there wasn't an armory here. "How?"

"I will attempt to overcome one of the sentries, and take his weapons."

"Good plan. Need any help?"

"It is kind of you to offer, O'Neill, but I think it would be best if you conserved your energy, and waited here."

"Okay, conserving then." He closed his eyes.

"You will be okay while I am gone?"

"Yup." He lied, eyes still closed.

"I will return, O'Neill." The Jaffa's hand touched his shoulder briefly, fingers squeezing, and Jack managed to raise his own hand, his long pale fingers resting for a moment on the thick, dark ones.

"I'll be here," he promised.

The forest was quiet once more.

Jack sat, waiting, wishing it wasn't so hot and he wasn't so thirsty and his leg would stop hurting for just a few minutes so he could rest, and that his vision wasn't all funky and that he didn't feel like a wrung out dishrag without an ounce of energy. For a moment, he wished he was six years old again and the pain was just a scraped knee from falling off his bike and his momma could brush back his hair and tell him it would be all better and it would be because she was the mom and she could fix anything.

He tried to wipe the sweat off his forehead, stop it from dripping down into his eyes and clouding his vision even further, but it didn't work because his hand was too heavy to lift as far as his forehead.

And then he heard the noise behind him.

Knew what it was.

Who it was.

Knew, too, that it was too late, but he had to move, or try to move, anyway.

Stumbling to his feet, but unable to stay there unaided, he collapsed down to his hands and knees in the damp leaf littered ground. When he mustered the energy to raise his head and look up, an alien figure towered above him, making sounds he couldn't understand, but he understood exactly the meaning of the staff weapon swinging viciously toward his head.

And then he understood nothing because he was flat down on the ground and unconscious.

He missed Teal'c's return, missed the fury on his friend's face as the Chulakian discovered one of Arklan's Jaffa standing over O'Neill's battered form.

Jack missed the satisfaction in Teal'c's eyes as he ambushed the enemy warrior, silently taking his foe down.

Jack missed the concern on the usually imperturbable face as Teal'c bent over his leader's crumpled form and gently wiped the blood seeping from the gash on the pale forehead.

"O'Neill?" the whisper was urgent. "O'Neill, you must awaken."

Jack groaned and resisted the return of awareness because the first sensation he felt was pain, and so was the second, and no sane man would want more of that.

But then he heard the voice, Teal'cs voice, filled with urgency, and laced with worry, and he knew he had to respond, no matter the cost.

Jack opened his eyes, blinking as he attempted to focus. The fuzzy blob above him gradually coalesced into a face he knew.

Teal'c was back.

That was good.

The other Jaffa, the one with the nasty left hook, was gone.

That was double good.

"O'Neill, we must move, now, if we are to reach the gate in time..."

Move? Not possible.

Gate? Who'd left it open? Grandpa was gonna' be mad if the cows were out because he'd left the gate open....

"O'Neill, can you understand me?"

Not really, he thought, but answered, "Yes," anyway, because he knew it was the answer the urgent voice wanted to hear. 

A hand gripped his arm and pulled, and Jack tried to help, but he wasn't very effective at assisting because his muscles were wobbling like Jello and the surging waves of pain from his leg kept overwhelming every other input that reached his skull. He heard himself moaning and wanted to stop and tried, biting his lip.

"I am sorry, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

Jack had only a brief second to wonder what his teammate was sorry about, but then he was sort of swooping through the air. First he thought he was just dizzy and then he realized that the Jaffa had picked him up and thrown him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Which he wished he was because he was sure a sack of potatoes didn't feel anything, especially not pain.

Closing his eyes to fight off the dizzying sensations of being carried, he concentrated on the need for silence.

They traveled a bit then stopped once again, Teal'c putting him down on the cool ground. But the ground was cold, icy as the Antarctic and soon he was shivering, despite his own coat and Teal'c's, and the fact that he was leaning against Teal'c.

Shivering, he dozed, and waited, and then the shivering turned to sweating and shaking in the heat. This was an odd planet, he thought, where one minute it was freezing cold and the next it was hot as summer in the desert.

Somewhere amid the changing seasons, he heard the familiar kawoosh of the gate opening and gunfire and shouting voices and Teal'c's quiet, "They are here, O'Neill, they have come for us."

Rescue.

That was good.

Real good.

He sighed and let himself slip into the waiting darkness.

/*****\

The pain was gone, well, not quite completely, but definitely beaten back to a bearable level, one that allowed him the opportunity to think and maybe even to function.

Summoning up the energy to open his eyes, he raised his weighty eyelids and found himself in the familiar confines of the SGC infirmary. He thought a moment, and realized he hadn't a clue how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was that Jaffa, and the staff weapon swinging at him, and then darkness. There *was* a tiny fragment of other memory, of Teal'c's face doing amazing loop de loops, and something akin to riding on the tilt-a-whirl with everything flowing past him in dizzying, spiral waves of motion, and being in the freezer before getting baked in the oven. Some of it he knew wasn't real, and some would turn out to be distorted reality, but that was okay, because he'd sort it all out eventually.

What mattered was that, for now, he was alive and relatively pain free. His head no longer felt like a mad bongo player resided inside of it, playing that old "Wipe Out" song over and over. The flames that had roared through his leg had been quenched, even when he wiggled his toes, just to be sure they were still wiggable. 

Or maybe he was just too doped up to know up from down.

That was likely.

But okay. 

Letting his eyes drift around the room, they finally spotted Teal'c sitting in the chair beside his bed, staring into the flame of the single candle on the nightstand. For a moment, Jack watched, too, finding the flickering of the bright flame mesmerizing, soothing in its simplicity.

Teal'c didn't move, the big man hardly seemed to breathe. He seemed so self-contained and centered, radiating a calmness that the injured man savored.

"Hi," Jack mumbled at last, breaking the spell.

The Jaffa blinked, leaving behind his state of kel'noreem, turning his gaze to the pale figure on the bed. "You are awake, O'Neill."

Jack smiled, appreciating the uncomplicated statement. That was one thing about Teal'c, he was straightforward. Didn't demand answers you didn't have, or explanations for things you couldn't explain. Didn't make you think too hard before you were ready to think. Didn't obscure simple things like waking up, when your brain wasn't yet ready for anything more than just being awake. There was comfort in that, in the stability of the big man's presence. Jack didn't need to do anything but agree. "Yup."

"That is good. Doctor Fraiser has been greatly concerned."

Fraiser was always concerned, which it was her job to be, though sometimes she got too concerned and mother-henned and smothered.

Though he wasn't gonna complain just yet. His body still felt in need of some more medical intervention, or at least, a solid dose of Doc's good numbing drugs. Maybe even a little mother-henning might be okay.

For just a bit.

Until he felt better.

Which he was going to do, because, though he was still not thinking entirely and completely clearly, he knew where he was.

He was home. 

He would heal.

No longer in the dark.

**The End**

  


* * *

  


> Author's Note: thanks to Margo for the encouragement, Sis for the beta and  
> all those who feedback

* * *

> © October 2004 Don't own 'em. Don't make no money from this. Don't post without  
> asking me, okay?


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